Monopoly (Market) Review and Tutorial

Monopoly Market is a different sort of darknet market than ones you may have experienced previously. At the time of this writing, it only sells drugs (as opposed to other types of products like digital goods)...

Monopoly Market is a different sort of darknet market than ones you may have experienced previously. At the time of this writing, it only sells drugs (as opposed to other types of products like digital goods), does not require registration, and only uses Monero. Its intention is to provide a platform for reliable vendors that is scam-free.

Like all of the other markets we’ve reviewed previously, Monopoly Market is hosted on the Tor network, meaning that you’ll need a special browser called the Tor Browser to access it. If this is your first time doing so, we have a tutorial entitled How to Access Tor (.Onion) Sites for that purpose.

Once you’ve installed the Tor Browser, just go to the URLs and you should be able to continue as usual.

Creating an Account

As mentioned in the intro, Monopoly (as opposed to most other markets) does not require creating an account. Instead, you deal directly with vendors and buy products without a middleman. While this may sound unsafe, the general concept behind this market is that buyers already trust the established vendors, and therefore don’t need the check-and-balance systems that many other markets have.

Even so, you will still have to fill out a CAPTCHA when you first access the market, as an anti-DDoS procedure.

Interface and Functions

Even compared to other markets, Monopoly has a very simple and straightforward interface. The main menu, located at the top of the homepage, has these functions:

Market – the main page of Monopoly, with all the listings

Vendors – a list of all the vendors currently selling on the site

Blog – the blog has guides to sending payments on Monopoly, and an explanation of how to use PGP (at the time of this writing)

Dread – a link to Monopoly’s subdread

Help – a general FAQ. Unlike many other markets, Monopoly does not have a support system, since they don’t have user accounts.

When browsing for goods, the categories are located on the left sidebar (as on many other markets), while it displays listings in the center. There is also a basic search function located above the categories menu. All in all, it’s mostly self-explanatory, though it lacks some of the options that many other markets have. These seem to be designed as anti-scam measures, for the most part (for example, being walletless).

Categories and Listings

At the time of this writing, Monopoly has a somewhat limited number of listings. Even so, this is because the market is new, and only has a few vendors. The categories are as follows:

Alcohol - 0

Genuine - 0

Counterfeit - 0

Other - 0

Benzos - 12

Pills - 5

Powder - 0

RC - 0

Other - 7

Cannabis – 66

Buds and Flower - 32

Shake - 0

Concentrates - 17

Hash – 5

Edibles – 8

Seeds – 0

Synthetic – 0

Other - 4

Dissociatives – 1

Ketamine – 1

MXE – 0

GHB – 0

Other – 0

Ecstasy – 6

Pills – 1

MDMA – 1

MDA – 0

Methylone & BK – 0

Other - 0

Opioids – 8

Pills – 1

Heroin – 0

Fentanyl & RCs – 0

Buprenorphine – 1

Codeine – 3

Dihydrocodeine – 0

Hydrocodone – 0

Hydromorphone – 0

Morphine – 0

Opium – 0

Oxy – 0

Other - 3

Prescription – 8

Genuine – 8

Counterfeit – 0

Other - 0

Psychedelics – 12

LSD – 3

Shrooms – 5

DMT – 2

2C-B – 1

Other - 1

Steroids – 0

Genuine – 0

Counterfeit – 0

Other - 0

Stimulants – 4

Speed – 0

Meth – 0

Cocaine – 0

Mephedrone – 0

Crack – 0

Other - 4

Tobacco – 0

Genuine – 0

Counterfeit – 0

Other - 0

Weight Loss – 0

Genuine – 0

Counterfeit – 0

Other – 0

If you click on a category, you’ll see its subcategories underneath, and listings will be displayed pertaining to that category as well. Even in the process of writing this review, vendors added new listings to their sales, so check back often if a product is not in stock.

Search Functions and Filters

Compared to many other markets, Monopoly’s search function is rather basic. Even so, because there are a smaller number of listings at present, it shouldn’t be difficult to find what you’re looking for.

First, do a basic search, such as “THC” or “MDMA,” and you’ll see listings related to that. You can then filter these listings by the following:

Ships From: the country in which the product originates

Ships To: the country the product should be shipped to

Price: None, Lowest First, or Highest First

Again, Monopoly is a fairly new market, so if this is where you want to shop, check back often to see if the listings have been updated.

How to Choose the Right Vendor

Beyond blindly buying a product and seeing if it’s of good quality, there are several other ways that you can figure out if a vendor is good or not. Monopoly, however, is somewhat different in this regard, as its vendors have already seen success on previous markets. Therefore, if you already know one of the vendors from another site, it would be wise to go with them.

In addition, Monopoly has a subdread, on which you can get recommendations and see reviews from other customers before you make your choice. Still, if you buy a product and end up having a negative experience, you can make this known on Dread or other similar forums to help future buyers.

How to Become a Vendor

Becoming a vendor on Monopoly is more challenging than on some other markets, because you can’t simply pay a fee on the market and then change your account to a vendor account. The reason for this is that Monopoly takes extra effort to weed out scammers and bot accounts.

What you would normally do in this instance is to go to Monopoly’s subdread, and then fill out a vendor application, at http://dreadditevelidot.onion/d/Monopoly/wiki?id=71161223. However, at the time of this writing, vendor applications are closed, so this is not an option; it may change in the future.

How to Add and Withdraw Funds

As with the other aspects of the market, adding and withdrawing funds on Monopoly contrasts with other markets as well. There are no on-site wallets, so consequently, you can’t add or withdraw funds. Instead, you use whichever bitcoin wallet you normally use outside of the market (e.g. Electrum), and send the funds directly through there.

How to Buy Products

Because Monopoly doesn’t have on-site wallets, buying products is also a bit different from what you may be used to on other markets. Find an item that you’d like to purchase, and then click on the tab that says “Order” below the description.

Fill out the form, and then you’ll receive an order code, amount, and address to send your funds to. If you have any issues, click the dispute button to address them. On the other hand, if there is no dispute button present, then go over to Monopoly’s subdread and create a post to address the issue.

One downside we came across while searching for products was that many of the vendors seemed to have the maximum number of orders they could process at the moment, so it was impossible to make another purchase. This was likely due to the fact that Monopoly is much more selective about which vendors can sell on the market. If this happens, then you can either wait until that vendor becomes available again, or see if another vendor has the same product.

Support and Help

While most markets tend to have a support ticket system, because there are no accounts for buyers, this doesn’t exist. Instead, the site has an FAQ divided into three categories: “General Site Information,” “Buyer Information,” and “Vendor Information.” If your question isn’t addressed in the FAQ, then they recommend that you visit their subdread and ask your question there.

Pros and Cons

Pros

Only works with established vendors who have a strong reputation for quality

No on-site wallets, so you are unlikely to have your bitcoins stolen

Easy-to-use interface and uncomplicated site functions

Cons

Many vendors have the maximum amount of orders, so you can’t buy their products (at this time)

Limited number of listings (partly because there are only a few vendors)

No on-site support system (as mentioned, this is handled through Dread instead)